Public opposition and concerns over environmental impact have prompted PennDOT officials to reject northern and southern bypasses as solutions to traffic woes on Route 228. As part of the Route 228 Improvement Project, officials from the state Department of Transportation have been looking at ways to alleviate traffic tie-ups on Route 228, a major east-west highway that links Route 8 in Middlesex with Route 19 in Cranberry. A community advisory committee came up with 16 alternative routes to ease traffic woes, some calling for new routes to splinter off from Route 228 to both the north and south. The northernmost and southernmost routes have been eliminated from a PennDOT study of the project, PennDOT spokesman Jim Struzzi said Friday. In a letter to Marshall Manager Neil McFadden, George Boros, PennDOT project manager, said the northern and southern alternatives "do not adequately meet the project's needs." The northernmost route would run through Middlesex, Adams, Seven Fields and Cranberry and the southernmost route would run through Middlesex, Valencia, Pine, Marshall and Cranberry. "An assessment of project impacts to environmental and socioeconomic resources indicates deficiencies with these alignments," Boros wrote. "In addition, based on comments received at the previous public meeting, the project team has observed that there is little public support for the northern and southern off-line alternatives." PennDOT also will ask that the routes be dropped from consideration by the Federal Highway Administration, which is expected to decide on a route in 2005. McFadden was relieved that PennDOT had ruled out the route stretching through Marshall. Now, he just hopes the Federal Highway Administration follows suit. "I don't want it to linger on the list," he said. "I am thoroughly convinced it is not a feasible route and that it will never be built, but I just don't want it to linger." Struzzi said PennDOT officials now will focus on the seven "on-line" alternatives that sit closer to the existing Route 228 corridor or only stray a little from it. He said PennDOT will present the remaining alternatives at a meeting in late October. The remaining options will require less property to be purchased or taken, and less land to be disturbed, Struzzi said. Costs for those alternatives range from $61million to $101 million. The costs of the alternatives ruled out by PennDOT range from $124 million to $201 million. About 30,000 motorists a day travel on Route 228 near the Interstate 79 ramps in Cranberry, while about 15,800 motorists daily use Route 228 near Route 8, according to PennDOT figures. The community advisory committee, composed of residents, local business representatives and municipal officials from Adams, Cranberry and Middlesex, Mars and Seven Fields, was set up last year by PennDOT. After several meetings, the committee came up with a number of alternatives, ranging from widening Route 228 to creating alternate routes. PennDOT is beginning a detailed analysis of the remaining seven alternatives, and it is scheduled to begin studying the environmental impacts in the spring. That work should be completed in 2005, when PennDOT officials are scheduled to begin final design work and acquire needed property. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2008.

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